Part III The writing tools
Different surfaces, different tools
To understand which surfaces and which tools the Egyptians needed to write, one simply needs to visit any Museum housing Egyptian collections or the Egyptian temples and tombs. As we previously saw, there were many different writings used on different surfaces. The hieroglyphs, the sacred language, were usually carved into walls or written papyrus. Temples and tombs walls were in limestone, and to carve them, the workers used wooden hammers and metal chisels. Then came the hieroglyphs written on papyrus, the cursive hieroglyphs, the Hieratic later followed by Demotic and Coptic, all of them written on papyrus, ostraca and sometimes wooden pannels.
A papyrus : it's a sheet made of papyrus plants, native to Egypt, that grows on the Nile's borders. It is the symbol of Lower Egypt. Papyrus plants must have their stem cut intro strips of about the same size, then put into water for a few minuts, before being laid out side by side. Immediatly after, it must be covered by another layer of strips and beaten ( sometimes with a wooden tool ) until the natural juice of the plant sticks the strips together. It was made to dry and was then ready to be written on.
An ostracon : it is a simple piece of pottery or limestone. It was also used for writing but most probably for drafts, drawings or short records. Important and long texts were rather written on papyri.
The reliefs, paintings and objects housed in the musuem give us very detailed information about how were the tools were used for writing. Scribes held a little and rectangular case, called " palette " where they put their material : a hole for the ink and a place for the " kalam ", the reed they used to write. The reed was cut at one end in order for the scribe to write easily. The two main colors used in writing were black and red. Black was the most important, while red was use to write titles. Instructors used to correct their students with red ink, as it's usually the case in nowadays schools.
A papyrus : it's a sheet made of papyrus plants, native to Egypt, that grows on the Nile's borders. It is the symbol of Lower Egypt. Papyrus plants must have their stem cut intro strips of about the same size, then put into water for a few minuts, before being laid out side by side. Immediatly after, it must be covered by another layer of strips and beaten ( sometimes with a wooden tool ) until the natural juice of the plant sticks the strips together. It was made to dry and was then ready to be written on.
An ostracon : it is a simple piece of pottery or limestone. It was also used for writing but most probably for drafts, drawings or short records. Important and long texts were rather written on papyri.
The reliefs, paintings and objects housed in the musuem give us very detailed information about how were the tools were used for writing. Scribes held a little and rectangular case, called " palette " where they put their material : a hole for the ink and a place for the " kalam ", the reed they used to write. The reed was cut at one end in order for the scribe to write easily. The two main colors used in writing were black and red. Black was the most important, while red was use to write titles. Instructors used to correct their students with red ink, as it's usually the case in nowadays schools.
Papyrus
http://www.aujardin.org/garder-mes-papyrus-t55739.html
A plant of papyrus.
Papyrus
http://www.legypteantique.com/papyrus.php
A papyrus sheet
An ostracon
http://www.lessing-photo.com/search.asp?a=1&kc=202020202C9F&kw=MIDDLE+KINGDOM%2C+EGYPT&p=3&ipp=6
As you can see, ostraca could be used for small drawings as well as for writing.
The scribe's palette
http://noe-education.org/D1232.php
Here is a typical wooden palette. It can contain many kalams ans has a hole for the ink.
The kalam
http://www.egyptos.net/egyptos/viequotidienne/scribe.php
Here is a Kalam made of reed.
Carving hieroglyphs
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/tombs.htm
Hieroglyphs were the only types of writing carved into walls. These are a wooden hammer and a metal chisel. It could be used to dig tombs in the moutains ( the Valley of the Kings ) and would be appropriate to carve walls as well.